A couple of quick notes on New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

First, Metroblogging New Orleans has been doing and continues to do an amazing job of posting information despite the conditions.

Metroblogging Houston also has some coverage of the arrival of people from New Orleans. It sounds like Houstonians are going out of their way to help these people out the best they can. Good to hear given some of the reports out of New Orleans.

Local New Orleans transplant, Ray In Austin, is posting some very good information that he’s collecting from various sources. His blog was the first place where I read that Fats Domino was missing.

If you’d rather do something in person, there are people from New Orleans being housed at the Burger Center by the Red Cross. Also, Capital Area Food Bank and H-E-B are collecting donations of diapers, bottled water, peanut butter (plastic containers please), canned meats (ring-pull lids please) and granola/cereal bars tomorrow from 8am-6pm.

I was last in New Orleans for a bachelor party about three years ago and I used to head down there for Mardi Gras during college and crash with old high school friends. Most of the people that I know have moved out of the city since then, but there are couple who still live there: one made it safely to family in Cincinnatti and the other stayed behind and hasn’t been heard from yet. It’s an amazing city and I can’t begin to fathom what it’s like for all of the people who call it home and are now forced to face the very real possibility that they’ve lost everything, have to begin again, and may never return.

Update: Also, the Metroblogging community is selling some schwag and 100% of the profits will go to the displaced New Orleans Metrobloggers and their families.